BUMBA Programs

Mentoring and Support

We like to see our members happy and succeed in their beekeeping efforts. BUMBA has a mentoring program in place staffed by experienced beekeepers who will help you accomplish your beekeeping goals. This can be done by email, phone calls and if necessary, visits to your apiary if you just don’t know what you are looking at in those boxes. The first year is always the toughest for any new beekeeper and sometime a helpful eye can make all the difference. New members are encouraged to contact any BUMBA officer if they feel they need a little advice or a trained eye to take a peek.

Our primary mentoring tool is The BUMBA Online Forums, however. This group is restricted to current members and has dozens of experienced local members who will answer your questions and advise you along the way. We strongly recommend you join this group and post any questions or concerns you might have about beekeeping. Not only will you get answers to your questions, you will get different opinions from seasoned BUMBA members about their beekeeping experiences.

Our member’s experiences and opinions will prove to be your best "timely" source of information about keeping bees in Maryland. Timing is everything in beekeeping. 

You can ask questions, post pictures, submit articles, read other members questions and answers and be notified whenever a file or new information is uploaded to the site.

Please identify yourself as a BUMBA member and include your full name or you will not be approved.

Most of the members already in the group are at least 2nd year and beyond beekeepers so you can feel fairly comfortable that the people replying to your questions know a bit about beekeeping.

If you would like someone who lives close by to come over and go through your colony with you, most of the beekeepers in our club know their limitations and will be more than forthcoming with their level of experience with you if you ask them. All beekeepers are a pretty honest bunch of people, as the saying goes; "You'll never meet a bad beekeeper"

The BUMBA forums can be accessed at https://www.bumbabees.com/forums/